No Going Back by Lyndon Stacey Page B

still around, were they?
    Daniel moved on down the road to where, the week before, the dog had picked up the girls’ trail. The more he’d thought about it, the less he’d been convinced that the girls had ever been in the car park at all.
    As he’d suspected, the track they’d followed was mirrored by another one on the opposite side of the road. Perhaps Reynolds or his brother had followed the girls on foot until they lost them and then driven to the car park before making the decision to call Daniel.
    The trail on the lower side of the road appeared to follow a fairly straight path, as far as he could see, heading for a dark line of trees several hundred yards away.
    According to his map, the wooded area was about half a mile from one side to the other, and beyond it were fields and then a road flanked by what looked like a scattering of large properties. If the girls had followed that path, could they have started out from one of those houses?
    The sheep path was too small to be marked on the map, and the only way to find out if it did indeed lead to the wood was to follow it. Glancing at his watch, Daniel decided he had time to investigate and, with a word to the dog, set off at a jog along the narrow path.
    The apparent straightness of the sheep track was somewhat misleading, as it meandered across the open space, circumnavigating boggy areas, and it took Daniel a quarter of an hour to reach the trees. After another ten minutes or so, he emerged from the gloom of the woodland on to a stony track that ran along the back of the fields he’d seen on the map. At this point he was at a stand. There was no obvious point of access to the property in front of him, and it was impossible to guess which way the girls might have come: right or left. If indeed they had come that way at all.
    He began to retrace his steps. It was time to head for Taunton to pick up Drew. Another day he would try and find the lane from the other end, but realistically without Katya’s help he had little hope of tracking Reynolds down.
    As was often the case, Daniel left Taunton that evening with a mixture of relief and regret. In the short period he’d lived there, both his working and home lives had been tense and unhappy, his new colleagues wary of him and Amanda constantly blaming him for taking her away from her friends, though the choice hadn’t been his.
    Even in Bristol most of his socializing had been done within the tight-knit community of the police service and there he knew he had precious few supporters remaining. As for Amanda’s friends, he had no doubt that she’d have poisoned their minds against him. As soon as it had become clear that his reputation had suffered irreparable damage, she’d lost no time in distancing herself from him, playing the victim and milking sympathy from those around her.
    Usually the enjoyment Daniel derived from his time with Drew balanced out the unhappy associations the town held for him, but this time the visit had only added to his stress. From the start Drew had been quiet, and as the afternoon wore on, he seemed increasingly withdrawn, even their trip to the bowling alley failing to revive his spirits.
    Over a luxurious hot chocolate in the restaurant of the complex, Daniel attempted to discover the reason behind his son’s depression.
    â€˜Something on your mind, Drew? You seem a little quiet.’
    Drew made a figure of eight with his straw in the cream on top of his drink and said nothing. He was wearing a navy hooded sweatshirt with some meaningless logo on the front, and a pair of expensive-looking trainers.
    â€˜Are you in trouble? Is it Mum? Or something at school? You’re not being bullied?’
    Drew shook his head mutely, but Daniel had enough experience of kids to know that whatever was on his mind, deep down he wanted to share it. If it were something he hadn’t wanted to discuss, he would have made up some other excuse for his